president obama reaffirms washington's unbreakable bonds with israel despite differences iran's nuclear program while the west bank prepares to greet the u.s. leader with raging pride tests. full in the china shop russia's prime minister is the handling of cyprus is economic turmoil in a cool welcome for the brussels officials who arrive in moscow attempting to calm the financial storm. and syria's government and opposition rebels both demand an international price internet deadly chemical attack both sides blaming on each other.

international news and comment coming chief live from moscow you're watching our take with me. u.s. president barack obama has reassured israel of washington's unwavering support seeking to close a chapter of strained relations between the kiana during his first ever visit to the country is president obama vowed to prevent neighboring iran from obtaining nuclear weapons but failed to offer any solution to the israeli palestinian conflict ati's middle east correspondent brings us more from the west bank where president obama will be heading next. president obama so he's saying all the right things to the israeli public he's spoken about the importance of israel's security he's spoken about the close alliance between washington and tel aviv and he's also spoken about extending financial support to israel on wednesday night after he met with this way the prime minister benjamin netanyahu a bomber say that the goal of his visit was to talk with the israeli people no mention of the palestinians no mention of the peace process or of continuous

israeli settlement expansion in fact during his first address off to arriving yesterday in israel and later after he met with israeli president shimon peres he did not talk about the palestinians at all now this is in shock in sharp contrast to the address he gave back in two thousand and nine in cairo where he said that one of the top priorities of his foreign policy agenda was the resolution of the israeli palestinian conflict it's no secret that a bomb in a town yahoo don't exactly like each other or see eye to eye and many people feel that this latest visit by the american president is nothing more than a p.r. effort but it doesn't ignore the fact that there is still a great deal of mistrust between the two leaders as was underlined in this comment by the israeli prime minister as you can never see the two different versions to add even to the greatest of our friends what is also interesting is that syria has received more attention and then the decades old conflict between the israelis and

palestinians and the american and israeli leadership have been focusing more on what is happening on syria than on this never ending conflict here right on their doorstep this morning thursday the american president will be here in ramallah for talks with the palestinian president mahmoud abbas and the palestinian prime minister salam fayad we don't exactly know what is on the agenda but i can tell you that palestinians are angry firstly obama is visiting israel palestine for three days but he's going to be visiting the palestinian leadership for just a few hours the rest of the time he is in israel he's not giving. any kind of address to the palestinian public which is later today he will be addressing the israeli public and then he will not be visiting the grave of the former p.l.o. leader yasser arafat that you see behind me where as he will be visiting the grave of the former israeli prime minister yitzhak rabin certainly the feeling on the palestinian street is that this is a visit by the american media ship that is a sign of support for the israelis and that it is ignoring palestinian concerns and

palestinian issues so certainly a lot of anger here in palestine and obama will have a lot of having to make up if indeed he's going to get the palestinians on his side ever again. political analyst even him allusion says palestinians are angry by an apparent lack of desire on the part of israel and the u.s. to bring peace to the region. the state of israel speaking about defense is really like a carnivore speaking about being vegetarian this state of israel has been launching one that after another against neighboring arab states as well as palestinians with and most recently in gaza and two thousand of all the things that are supposed to be discussed during obama's visit to occupied palestine i think the question of iran being a target is probably the most important one on the list obviously we have different

agendas here but at the same time let's not forget is that the prominence of iran and the gulf area and across the other breeds and of you is also upsetting nato's balance of power in the reeds and there's nothing substantial to be expected from this visit the primary goal of this visit is to embellish obama's image as an unsigned matanya whole personality and so this is mainly a public relations visit that is meant to improve the status of the democratic party in the united states visibly the israeli lobby and the u.s. congress. well the president of the palestinian authority mahmoud abbas who barack obama is to meet later on thursday doesn't seem to have high hopes for the visit either in an exclusive interview with artie's arabic channel he says there are plenty of words but little action when it comes to be israeli settlement expansion

issue the full interview is coming up later today but here's a quick taste. in his statements president obama has repeatedly voiced his opposition to illegal learned. and we think his right now all that remains sees to translate words into action but i have always asked americans and europeans to tell me if there has been less single miscalculation on my part in domestic or foreign policies over eight years supple well the israel makes mistakes every day so why don't you let them know. big talks over a tiny country moscow has become the focal point in efforts to overcome cypresses economic crisis e.u. officials arrive in the russian capital on thursday joining the cypriot finance

minister who is already in town and the ailing eurozone state is running out of time to avoid bankruptcy but pressure increasing from brussels after the country's parliament rejected preconditions for an e.u. loan me ma a frosty welcome may be had for the delegation is going off reports russian authorities were already quite critical of the cyprus bailout plan proposed by brussels and the so-called troika of key investors which is aimed at taxing private bank accounts in the country on wednesday evening prime minister dmitry media had some more strong words to see but so far the e.u. together with the cyprus parliament have unfortunately acted like a bull in a china shop i think all possible mistakes which could have been made in this situation have been made in fact the prime minister said that russia may have to start revising some of the economic agreements that it currently has with cyprus you also compare the situation with how the sort of it union or soviet authorities

dealt with private funds of soviet citizens meaning the expropriation of private property of course and in general you could we did have said that russia is only in favor of a healthy. economy a transparent one and one which is effective and which is that which works but he said that this crisis has to be dealt with where the involvement not only of brussels and the troika but with all the players the fact that including russia of course in the meantime cyprus itself at a very difficult position it be jack that the bailout plan proposed by the troika has turned to russia. finance minister has been meeting with russian officials in moscow throughout wednesday this speculation that cyprus is asking russia for a role in the finance minister said that. there's been no official proposal yet but you promise not to leave the capitol until an agreement is reached look the big picture is all this is happening. despite ngo or merkel being furious over so it

was even talking to russia about the issue since earlier she directly called on the country not to even consult with anyone about its current economic difficulties except for brussels and the troika now the latest developments all are cyprus it's authorities are reserve reckoning another plan which will be already presented earlier to you or european union authorities which they rejected and that is to tap into social funds of the country including the pension fund and in this way they hope to collect around five billion euros pretty much the same amount which we would have got if the reduce the tax on private bank accounts the european central bank says it will have to cut sign priss funding unless the island state gets a bailout. chairman of the bruges group which is need focus think tank police to use pressure on cyrus exposes a worrying hierarchy within the block. it seems that certain countries such as germany are we pushing their own agenda and those countries are small and

can't really stand up to the larger interests in the your opinion the large financial interests of french and german banks are really pushed around and are and are bullied and do not get a good deal and this is. from the e.u. to try and take a percentage of the savings of the cypriot banks which is actually we could argue that's actually breaching e.u. rules on protection taking deposits so it's actually very silly and it's also bullying and is actually counterproductive because it's now threatening the whole of banking system in southern europe because people see you is no friend of those who have to tell you things in bank accounts if he's no friend of protecting deposits and bank profits on what actually is this really otherwise should be. and later today artie's night skies will give his own unique take on the cyprus crisis. they just keep blowing this this this this chunks of vomit

in people's face the people in cyprus are being knocked down with projectile vomit coming out of the mouth of of the e.c.b. and the i.m.f. christine lagarde is projectile vomiting into the face of the people of cyprus and saying if that showed up and they're saying you are not it environment and america proper just either kristie and then the new york times all right what's the big deal oh mary ross sorkin i don't see anything wrong here meanwhile he's sucking kristi's down as fast as he can. syria's government and rebels are both demanding an international probe into a deadly attack that both sides claim was with the use of chemical weapons they've traded accusations as to who. was behind this so near the northern city of aleppo that killed up to thirty one people and wounded dozens of others well arty's is

following the story and joins me now in the studio do you need to be having any indication as to who might have been behind the attack and whether chemical weapons were actually used well we do have clear indication that the chemical weapons actually have been used have been used as a matter of fact in reportedly in the han area of the isle of a province this is unclear at the moment but if you look at the pictures right here people were rushed to the hospital after the attack the have very few clearly visible wounds but they're very clearly suffering from respiratory problems having to have a difficulty breathing victims of the assaults were saying that they saw all their people falling to the floor dying wouldn't this have confirmed to our team that people have been suffering from effects of what seems to be some sort of gas. who will go to the heart from. richard i. assured. him. three.

where in your. pocket. over. now the main question of course is who could be behind this attack well both assad's forces and rebels are pointing fingers at each other but the rockets reportedly fell in areas controlled by the government you can see on the right here we have the also fear or which i will get to in just a second in aleppo the one of the central cities in syria right there now syrian rebels have long been trying to overrun the weapons plant located in the very same area the aleppo province you're seeing it again right here there's a weapons plant reportedly located right here in also fear. supposedly that is where at least some of the country's chemical stockpile is said to be stored in fact the syrian government said in december that rebel forces plundered supplies of chlorine gas and some time ago this video which you're about to see was posted online purportedly showing animals being killed with chemicals there was the

chemicals right there and we will get in just a moment to the animals which are essentially being tested now those behind the footage affiliated themselves with assad's opponents and they have threatened to do the same to those who support the syrian president yet all of this evidence doesn't seem to convince president obama. deeply skeptical of any claim that in fact it was the opposition that used chemical weapons. now an interesting use of the word skeptical one of the biggest concerns of course for all is the scenario where syria's chemical arsenal falls into the hands of extremists fighters among opposition forces as history has shown there are examples when fighters supported by the west have eventually turned their arms against their backers now let's for a moment imagine that extremists among the rebel fighters could get hold of chemical weapons how bad could for example the laundered attacks of two thousand

and five have been if that was indeed the case we have already seen images of a chemical attack on a subway in a huge city back in one thousand nine hundred five in tokyo by religious sect well now imagine a similar scenario but staged by people with chemical weapons who were throughout the initial conflict in syria supported by the west so essentially we could safely say we are literally in dire straits now when it comes to the situation in syria ok thanks. thank you. coming up later this hour powerless and hopeless the condition of guantanamo bay prisoners deteriorates as they continue their hunger strike with the first official reaction to it after more than a month of silence. on the government awards world war two veterans who took supplies to the soviet union some consider it a softening up after they were refused permission to accept russia's award for what's being described as the worst in the world.

a clear image of iraq after inflation. twenty day taxi trip through the country. the roads full of danger. clear evidence from north to south of. the route of iraqi tragedy. after the war waiting for peace. talks e r t. we are facing a lot of problems you know. because no one. school.

is a law in the needs you might want to. give dunford. i was fired i must fight. i'll fight for. the right. to sound american and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to respond to freeze people. in the world. has allowed us to continue the policy of returns just pledge to bring it to split. wealthy british style stock. that's not on the.

market why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's culture the no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report. hello welcome back a top u.s. general says the hunger strike among guantanamo bay prison the shows their frustration with the government's failure to close the facility rejecting reports over mistreatment and the desecration of the koran the number of participants acknowledged by the pentagon has now risen to twenty five with detainees lawyers maintaining it's more than one hundred r.t.s. can each again brings us the latest. what we see here is

a small protest in front of the white house one told him all has been out of the media spotlight for a while now you don't see much coverage on major u.s. news channels even with the hunger strike going on there right now so these people are trying to draw attention to the detainees more than fifty lawyers representing the president sent a letter to defense secretary chuck hagel urging him to help her they said the participants health had deteriorated alarmingly and some had lost more than twenty or thirty pounds that is nine to fourteen kilograms medical experts say by day forty five participants can experience potential blindness and potential loss of hearing so what prompted these people to resort to such a desperate move. on if you were the case. those men were on the face of i don't want to talk for a year what's the point of view i don't want. to hear right now ok all. completely oh as many of the detainees have come to believe in

this what they say we heard this from their lawyers that the only way out of guantanamo for them is in a coffin in january a state department shut down the office that was working to close guantanamo more than half of those detainees are sitting there with papers from the clearing them with yet with no hope that they're ever going to be free again the officials are certainly trying to downplay the hunger strike but they're pressed for answers and they sure know what's going on and what cost the strike in the first place marine corps general john kelly and it's his command that oversees guantanamo he was testifying in congress this wednesday he said the prisoners have launched a hunger strike because they're frustrated take a listen they had great optimism that guantanamo would be closed they were devastated when the president did you know backed off at least their perception of closing the facility that has caused them to become frustrated and they want to get this i think turn that you don't get it back in the b.

. this week the un commissioner for human rights responded to our inquiry and said they're aware of the hunger strike and that they are trying to confirm the details in the same letter the human rights body says they have quote repeatedly regretted that the us government has not closed guantanamo bay on our part will continue to press officials for answers as the strike continues and involves more people in washington i'm going to check on. a more mainstream media does play down the issue r.t. has been following the story from the beginning we've got a timeline of events on our website where we've also gathered comments by u.n. prison officials detainees toni's and activist to give you a full picture of what is going on so you had to dot com for that and here's what else she might find there. voyager spacecraft may have just become the first manmade object to exit the solar system find out all the details online plus. discover the rat that almost caught yet another meltdown at japan's fukushima

nuclear plant find out how close the country came to disaster all because of one rodent norrin through a few why is more on our take dot com. a select group of u.k. world war two veterans have been awarded by prime minister david cameron for their service during the convoy of the convoys brought supplies to the soviet union in the fight against nazi germany last year london was criticised for rejecting moscow's offer to grant the british veterans a special award and reports feelings of gratitude are tainted with sadness and anger. a quarter of a million men took part in the arctic convoys over seventy years ago sadly today just a handful of those brave men still survived off to decades of campaigning the case that convoy veterans are at downing street to pick up their new leaman said medals . but it's all been worth it it's been

a long war he'd. been a wonderful day long time coming but tonight it's around one will be a sadness as old. ship night has crossed the bow. on soldier to die during the war ninety two year old vic bashford served in the royal left force as an electrical engineer him he was part of a secret operation that traveled on board the fust arctic convoy to russia back in one thousand nine hundred forty one. urging mr drouet you to start a second to go back. into we're going to prague to relieve the pressure on the russians mr hewitt we will certainly do some airplanes and we'll soon you're going to fly them well so near the moon too so buying time and. i will treat you and we will furnish more of wines so that's how we came to to be in the in russia

during world war two british ships transported around four million tons of supplies food onion missions for the soviet union more than three thousand sailors didn't survive the journey west subzero temperatures and german air raids were a fact of life on earth. on the rigging on the royals on the dirt. crash. of the. frogs and of course who wrote the die after die after their suit can be a bit frightening last year the british government came under fire for blocking veterans from receiving a special commemorative award from the russian government that medal was to be awarded as a symbol of gratitude for all that british veterans did to help the soviet union during the darkest days of the war and with whom we went through once who was yet

despite the opposition of m.p.'s the foreign office blocked the move saying the fight against nazi germany happened to long ago for the men to be recognised effectively leaving some veterans to die without recognition for their service and the thanks state as i think it's disgraceful absolutely disgraceful that the we were not the commode rooms a meal stroy humans are those that ruined the american. though being a war movie except one of us normally already knew the russians he was insulting to us. so this arctic star is. literally we were. far from. you know. not with the pride that i would have on. the russians. for those who braved the arctic waters and served their country all those years ago it's

a day of celebration shaking hands with the prime minister followed by a reception on the h.m.s. belfast with their arctic stars in tow but for many it's a celebration that's left a bitter aftertaste for the owner that's come too late for those who could still wear it. artsy london so it's not so because up ahead we take a look at everyday life in iraq a decade after u.s. led forces invaded the country in the post saddam hussein.

world. science technology innovation all the news developments around russia we've got the future hubbard. the news a secret laboratory to mccurry was able to build the most sophisticated robots which will unfortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tunes mission to teach music creation why it should care about humans and world this is why you should care only on the.

wealthy british style. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cause or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kaiser report on our. me he. says.

on the road to bass for this morning the u.s. army is beginning to withdraw from iraq. in december twenty seventh after nine years of occupation the last american troops are finally leaving the country. every guy got in about it i don't know yet about it ma'am i observe the iraqis anger towards the departing invaders who once dreamed of being liberators that departure resembles abandonment and escape despite the optimistic speeches. and you leave. it.